REVIEW: “Textures” by Lisa Fox

Review of Lisa Fox, “Textures,” Flash Fiction Online 143 (August 2025): 7-10 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

This is a story of love, and weddings, and memories. It’s sweet and short and sad, and full of beautiful metaphors such as “If love had a texture, it would be satin” (p. 7).

But — Annie, the main character, says of this metaphor,

In thirty-five years of working with brides, I knew which marriages would last by the way they responded to my metaphor (p. 7).

I wonder what she would think of my reaction, which is that satin wrinkles easily and the wrinkles are almost impossible to iron out!

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REVIEW: “The Harrowing of Hell (Third Circle, Sausage Counter, Contracts Office)” by S.L. Harris

Review of S.L. Harris, “The Harrowing of Hell (Third Circle, Sausage Counter, Contracts Office),” Flash Fiction Online 142 (July 2025): 27-30 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Anyone who has their own story about “terrible summer employment,” this story is for you! Even if you don’t have such a story, read this one anyway, you’ll get some laughs out of it, and we can all use those.

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REVIEW: “My Flesh, My Beating Heart, A Willing Meal That Refuses to Remember the Dangers of Being Eaten” by Deanna J. Valdez

Review of Deanna J. Valdez, “My Flesh, My Beating Heart, A Willing Meal That Refuses to Remember the Dangers of Being Eaten,” Flash Fiction Online 142 (July 2025): 23-26 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: Violence against women.

I’ve read a lot of stories that take the “monster on my back” metaphor literally — some of them are enormously effective and I love how they can be so straightforward without being trite. Unfortunately, this one isn’t quite one of them.

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REVIEW: “A Concise History of the Goldfish Trade” by Jason Pearce

Review of Jason Pearce, “A Concise History of the Goldfish Trade,” Flash Fiction Online 142 (July 2025): 12-14 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

There’s something about this story that feels very much like the type of fairy tale where a gullible young boy trades away his wealth for a myth. Two things made it more than that — Pearce’s setting amonst his ancestral Mi’kmaw, and the fact that the gullible young boy turns the tables at the end.

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REVIEW: “The Seal Wife” by Madeline White

Review of Madeline White, “The Seal Wife,” Flash Fiction Online 141 (June 2025): 23-25 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

I sometimes shy away from selkie stories because the myth is so narrowly defined that it is hard for an author to do something new and different. One aspect I really enjoyed about White’s take was that the titular seal wife while nevertheless always longing for the sea simultaneously refuses to give up her humanity and the chance to linger in the sunshine. That’s an angle I rarely see, and I liked it. More than that, I liked how the would-be husband to the narrator’s wife steadfastedly refused to satisfy the normal tropes, and instead doggedly insisted on consent and respect.

It wasn’t quite a happy story, but it was close.

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REVIEW: “The Aftertaste” by Julia Lafond

Review of Julia Lafond, “The Aftertaste,” Flash Fiction Online 141 (June 2025): 19-21 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

Content note: Disordered eating.

The last thing Mom needed was my worries on top of hers (p. 20).

This is a story of accommodation, of swallowing all the distress, fear, anger, unhappiness, tamping it down, keeping it down, so that everyone else can be happy.

It’s beautiful and toxic and Lafond’s words make the tastes tingle on my own tongue.

(First published in Twenty-Two Twenty-Eight, October 2023.)

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REVIEW: “Things Elan Reacquainted Himself With After Being Broken Out of His Single-Day Time Loop” by D. A. Straith

Review of D. A. Straith, “Things Elan Reacquainted Himself With After Being Broken Out of His Single-Day Time Loop,” Flash Fiction Online 141 (June 2025): 13-15 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.

I do love a good list-story! This was short, but effective, especially in conjunction with another title-which-is-basically-a-story-in-itself.

(First published in Inner Worlds 2024.)

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